North carolina edging out kentucky with this gamewinning shot. South carolina upsetting florida. They join gonzaga and oregon in the final four and this morning al is catching the college spirit, storming right into the madness with rokerthon 3 this morning. Matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live fro live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everybody, welcome to today on a monday morning. The stage is set, the competition is intense. Its rokerthon 3. The most exciting time of the year. We also have the final four to talk about but al roker told us he would not do unless it could surpass 1 and 2. So, al, how have you done that . [ cheers and applause ] whoa hey, guys hows that for an entrance . Thats a good one. Ive got to tell you, im not going to get down from here because it would be embarrassing. We are here at the university of oklahoma, the boomer sooners, baby. Thats it. And we are going to attempt a Guinness World record where we form the largest human weather symbols ever attempted. Its going to be big. Weve got the whole school, everybody hanging out, its going to be big. As we kick off rokerthon 3, storming into the madness. Theres boomer and sooner right there. Oh, my gosh. This is exciting a little enthusi in the show. Al, thank you very much. Well check in with him in a bit. Lets begin with infighting and the intense blamegame among republicans over that bid to pass an obamacare replacement. So where do the president and his party go from here . Were going to get perspective from former White House Press secretary josh earnest. But first nbcs Peter Alexander has the latest on this. Peter, good morning. Reporter matt, good morning. Well have to work on our entrance at the white house in days ahead. This morning, in the wake of the health care failure, Top Republicans are licking their wounds, the president is trying to shake off defeat and move on even as his budget director asked allowed if the Republican Party is capable of governing. The party and the president only have a window to focus on Lessons Learned before going into other tricky agenda items like keeping the government funded and cutting taxes. More fallout for a president feeling drained. First the d finger pointing. What happened is washington won. We learned washington was more broken than President Trump thought. Reporter President Trump tweeting democrats are smiling blaming the conservative Freedom Caucus and other conservative groups for the loss arguing they saved planned parenthood and obamacare. The debacle, a stinging failure for House Speaker paul ryan, punctuated by the president directing his 27 million followers to tune into this fox news broadcast. Judge janine pirros Opening Statement . Paul ryan needs to step down as speaker of the house. Reporter mr. Trumps team insisting that was a coincidence, not a conspiracy. Press Secretary Sean Spicer telling nbc news the president wanted to show support for her show, thats it. But when the show aired, President Trump himself was out to dinner at his d. C. Hotel with his daughter ivanka trump and his soninlaw. Aides say the president S Partnership with the speaker remains strong, that the two spoke twice this weekend. He doesnt blame paul ryan. In fact, he thought paul r reporter what now . Republican senator Lindsey Graham says President Trump should reach out to democrats. I dont think one partys going to be able to fix this by themselves. Reporter looking to regroup, mr. Trump and his team are now eyeing another president ial priority tax cuts. After a tumultuous first ten weeks, the obamacare replacement bill pulled, a wiretapping claim rebuked even though his top aides rebuke that. He doesnt accept that . No, he doesnt. Ultimately President Trump is going to be proven correct. Reporter an expanded role for his soninlaw. The president tapping Jared Kushner to lead the new White House Office of American Innovation, described as a swat team of strategic consultants. The white house says it will empower former Business Executives to help the government run more smoothly and efficiently. Also this week, the mystery over moscows meddling grows. The Senate Intelligence committee holding the first public the trump campaign. The top democrat telling nbc news he would be open to an independent commission to investigate possible collusion. Matt and savannah, back to you. Peter alexander, thank you very much. Josh earnest served as White House Press secretary under president obama, hes joined nbc news as a political analyst. Welcome to nbc. Im thrilled to be here. Now you have to wear your analyst hat, not your democrat hat. Looking at what transpired over the last few weeks in health care, who is to blame . At first President Trump said its the democrats. Then he said no, its the hardliners, the right, the house Freedom Caucus. What went wrong . Well, it turns out governing is many complicated and in many ways more difficult than campaigning. And the challenge starts at the top. If youre going to be president of the United States and you want to solve problems for the American People then you have to figure out the way to get it done. If you are not going to be willing to make calls to the other side and build Bipartisan Legislation then youre going to have Party Remains divided. Lets get more specific, though. You know how the white house works. So is this a problem with the chief of staff, Reince Priebus . Was this a problem with the chief adviser steve bannon . Was this the Vice President who Knows Congress pretty well . Who missed the stop sign . I think they all did. Its clear there are fissures in the Republican Party that could not be breached even by somebody like mike pence who has great relationships with conservative republicans. There wasnt a willingness on the part of anybody in the white house to work with democrats to actually improve obamacare and address the problems we know can be solved and improved and we couldnt be in a situation, matt, where the president of the United States its just not tenable to be in a position where the president of the United States is ready to accept obamacare is going to explode. The American People expect you to solve problems not stand idly by while people get hurt. Paul ryan said its a major setback, he said were trying to go from the party of no to a party governing and were not there yet. The president has said supportive things about the speaker of the house to date but thee janine pirro show. Is speaker ryans job safe in your opinion . Well, what is clear is that for republicans in congress, they havent been safe in a long time if their party is so divided. The Republican Party over the last ten years has been instinctive opposition to everything related to president obama thats why it was easy to vote to repeal obamacare but when it came to replacing it, when it came to building a coalition to do something proactive and positive for the country, theres no consensus in the Republican Party. And as long as youre unwilling to work with democrats to find common ground, were going to be stuck in the mud here. Now the shoe is on the other foot, isnt it . Democrats have a choice to make. They have some soul searching to do. On the one hand, there may be opportunity to work with President Trump on infrastructure, on tax reform, perhaps a replacement bill for health care but theres not a lot of appetite on the lef wi trump a victory. What would be your advice . Its clear that democrats in congress are holding a much stronger hand than it looked like they were holding 65 days ago, so the question is how are they going to play the hand . They have leverage and they should use it and if there are opportunities to make progress on their terms in support of some values and priorities democrats have identified they can look for those opportunities but they dont have to fold to republicans, theyre playing a strong hand. This is so unfair to do to you on your first day. In 10 seconds left josh, the relationship between donald trump, President Trump, and president obama, started out cordially. Is it completely over . Im not aware theyve had conversations since President Trump took office but the telephone line still works so if he wants advice or insight, im confident that president obama, whos interested in the success of the country, would be happy to share his experience with President Trump. That sounds like a press secretarys answer. Josh earnest, good to have you, welcome to nbc. Programming note, tomorrow South CarolinaLindsey Graham hell get his take on the fights over health care and the president S Supreme Court pick, russia and a whole lot more. Senator Lindsey Graham live tomorrow morning on today. Taking a look at other news, were hearing from the family of the american tourist who died in last weeks terror attack in london. And there are new developments in the investigation as well. Nbcs Kelly Cobiella is in london for us this morning. Kelly, good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning. Emotional News Conference in london. The family using words like awful, horrible, gut wrenching to describe what theyre doing through. A family grieving. This has been a humbling and difficult experience but we felt the love of so many people during these past several days. Reporter for brother, son, husband curt cochran, he was killed, his wife melissa badly injured in last weeks terrorist attack. The most difficult part of all of longer with us. And we miss him terribly. Were getting ready to get fired up, stick around. Reporter the 54yearold cochran ran a music studio in utah with his wife. The couple in london to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary when a terrorist mowed them down on westminster bridge. Four killed, Dozens Injured in an attack police said lasted just 82 seconds. The man responsible, police say, 52yearold khalid masood, born and raised in england to a single mom. Over the weekend, another arrest. Two people are still being held, their alleged ties unclear. Police say he left a message on whats app just before his killing spree. The British Government pushing for access to encrypted s. We need to make sure they dont have a secret place to communicate with each other. Reporter in moment, pra mom silence, prayers and defiance. We want to dedicate this set to kurt. Reporter in utah, a somber tribute to a good friend. He touched people the same way music does. Reporter still in shock hes gone. This morning melissa cochrans mother says she has a broken rib, a cut on her head and badly broken leg but she says she is doing better. Also this morning, the family thanked emergency workers and the public. So far 70,000 has been raised in support of this family. Matt, savannah . Kelly cobiella, thank you. This morning, the u. S. Is condemning the arrests of hundreds of protesters in russia and calling for their release. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in moscow on sunday in an anticorruption demonstration against the russian government. Police say more tan Rights Group Says that number is closer to 700. Among those detained, alexei navalny, president putins most strident critic. There was an avalanche at a japanese ski resort. The resort is about 100 miles of tokyo. More than 30 people were treated for nonlife threatening injuries. Hours before the incident the local Meteorological Agency issued an alert warning for heavy snowfall and possible avalanches. Back to that dramatic video we showed you at the top of the show, an escalator packed full of shoppers at a hong kong mall reverses direction at high speed sending people tumbling to the bottom, at least 18 people were injured, two people are still in the hospital, they are in stable condition. The reason behind that malfunction still unknown but two technicians who were called in to help arrested, accused of tampering with the escalator after the incident. Let us get back to march madness and the final four. Thomas roberts is here. You tell me that you had oregon, South Carolina, gonzaga and North Carolina in the final four . Im calling you on that. Im married to a uk grad. I dont even fill out brackets but for millions of americans your brackets are probably busted and your voices may be gone like mine because those exciting elite eight games producing two first timers in the final four and one finish for the ages. This morning, the madness marches on with the final four now set. North carolina will face off against oregon while cinderella South Carolina takes on gonzaga. Two matchups few fans could have predicted. North carolina eking out a win over kentucky in dramatic fashion after the wildcats malik monk sunk a three point we are time running out. North carolinas luke may responded with his own buzzer beater. May for the win with three seconds to go. Reporter the tar heels beating the wildcats 7573 in the final nailbiting seconds. Its over. Reporter in another wild game, South Carolina. Back, yes reporter coming from behind in the second half against florida gators. Their defense dominating. Taken away dozier, noticed. Reporter South Carolina defeating florida 7770, bringing heart break to their opponents and joy to their fans, including Country Music star Darius Rucker crying tears of joy in the stands. South carolinas coach frank martin also sharing this touching moment with his mother. Im the luckiest human being in the world. Reporter their victory making South Carolinas first trip to the final four but theyre not the only ones. The gonzaga bulldogs also making history this weekend. For the first time in program history, gonzaga is headed to the final four. Reporter surging past xavier in an 8359 victory, their matchup with South Carolina next saturday guaranteed to be historic. But the oregon ducks are looking to make history of their own, returning to the final four for the First Time Since 1939. Oh, no are you kidding me . Reporter hoping to dash North Carolinas dreams of returning to the championship and bringing home the trophy for the first time in nearly 80 years. We will all know coming up next saturday. So we have South Carolina against gonzaga, oregon versus North Carolina now. Fill out your brackets. [ laughter ] literally now. Thomas, thank youy stand the excitement but theres more on College Campuses because al has stormed into the madness. Hes at the university of oklahoma for the start of rokerthon 3. Al, good morning again. Well, good morning, guys. Weve got everybody here gathered but i have to tell you, it was ironic that were starting off here in norman because on campus here at the university of oklahoma is severe storms all housed in the national weathercenter here on campus. They had a lot going on yesterday. In fact, take a look right now. This is iona, oklahoma. Damaging hail. They had upwards of softball sized hail. It did a lot of damage to homes and caused a lot of problems. This lake looks like its boiling. And they also had tornados reported again just southeast of here, ada, oklahoma, we had twisters reported. There were some reports of damage to some mobile homes but thankfully no injuries. Lets look at whats going on for today. More Severe Weather to talk about. Itsea midsection of the country. The stuff that happened year yesterday has moved to the east. Look at where we have the risk of Severe Weather including an enhanced risk from nashville to memphis, tupelo, mississippi, 12 Million People at risk for isolated tornados and then tomorrow it moves further to the east as it continues to push eastward, storms rumbling in the tennessee valley, damaging winds, hail, downpour and then for tomorrow Oklahoma City again under the gun, Wichita Falls down to san angelo, texas, 11 Million People at risk with 60 mile per hour winds. Well get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds